Parkour: Jump Over The City [PHOTOS, VIDEO]

The contemporary Samurai

"Each one of us started differently" said Adam Ślesiński from the Parkour Wrocław club. "Some had already had some sports experience and have simply discovered parkour via the Internet. They tried it, liked it, and have been with us ever since. I started in 2004, when access to the Internet was still somewhat limited. I remember I caught the bug of parkour after watching Luc Besson's "Yamakashi", and it is basically how it all started. I gathered a few people who also got interested with this subject, and we began to jump. I wasn't easy at the beginning, because I hadn't had much to do with sports as such, but I didn't give up and after those 10 years I'm still training and improving my technique" added Adam.

Adam has been involved with parkour since 10 years - achieving such jumps indeed takes years of training. Photo: Miłosz Turowski

"I started 7 years ago. At first we would simply go out with my buddies to the back yard and jump at kids' playground. Then I approached the subject more seriously and started training with the guys" said Kamil, who studies and works in Wrocław. "Sometimes I use my trained skills in everyday life. I don't know whether I should blow my horn about it, but once I was in a hurry to my uni and jumped over the tram's window, because it took a turn not where I was heading" he shared.

Hop over the fence

"At first we used to jump ramps, barriers and things like that. Then things have evolved and we started perceiving the city in a slightly different way" said Adam. "Jumping from one place to the other, working on one's landing technique, clearing several obstacles in one stroke and so on. But it's not like we are running and covering 500-1000 metres. In fact, 90 percent of parkour training is perfecting the technique and training particular single elements, which is repeated many times over. The obstacles can be walls, space between walls, sometimes barriers or 3-, 4-metre walls that we need to climb.

What seems impossible to us, for them is a piece of cake. Photo: Miłosz Turowski

"To be honest, there are no age or sex limits in this sport. For example, my girlfriend trains parkour and she's doing really OK" admits Kamil. "Warm-up is very important, we spend up to 45 minutes on it. Your whole body needs to be prepared before training, as in parkour each muscle is involved. First, there's a regular warm-up, then jumps to warm up the joints, and prepare them for enhanced performance" he added.

Hurry-scurry, and crack-up?

Watching the impressive jumps up, down and through, one might get the impression that this is one very dangerous sport. But, as the traceurs, i.e. people involved in parkour training, this is not much more dangerous than other sports disciplines.

Traceurs assure that parkour is a sport for everyone. Photo: Miłosz Turowski

"Obviously, injuries happen in parkour, as in any other sports. Most often, however, one can get scrapes or scratches, as fractures and sprains virtually don't happen. I suspect parkour is less dangerous than, let's say football" adds Adam. "Of course common sense is always most important. Before attempting to undertake such long jumps, we train on, for example, curbs to learn to land well, or fall for that matter, and it is only later that you can jump so far.

All city under your feet

The Plac Grunwaldzki and its "sedesowce" blocks, the Kosmonautów residential area, the passage under Plac Strzegomski and Jana Pawła II, and apart from that a few places in Gaj and Nowy Dwór.

Each training is preceded by at least half an hour of warm-up. This is how potential injuries are eliminated. Photo: Miłosz Turowski

"Honestly speaking, one can jump everywhere" said Kamil. "During trainings in the city centre encounters with the police or the City Guards do happen, as residents call them when disturbed by our presence, but in general such encounters do not end badly, as we do not destroy anything" he added.

"Usually we meet in one place, train for 2 hours and change the place" said Adam. "Now that we have achieved the building of a special parkour square at Wzgórze Andersa, we will be mainly training there, but I think we will not totally abandon "wild" places" he pointed out.

Chaps from the Parkour Wrocław club are also training the new blood of traceurs. They can be joined at any time, and for details go to their Facebook fan page.

Text and video: ulaj

Photos: Miłosz Turowski